A thousand mu of abandoned sandy land yields a bumper harvest, bearing fruit of prosperity
The early winter sun shines brightly on Zhang Xiaojun's 1000 mu of peanut fields in Aogan Tala Gacha, Daqin Tala Town, Naiman Banner, as three villagers bundle peanut vines and load them onto carts to send to nearby livestock farmers' homes.
"Peanut prices are good this year. On this 1000 mu of peanut fields, my friend and I can each conservatively estimate earning 150,000 yuan. Most of this land is sandy soil that had been abandoned for years. As long as you choose the right industry, even water-scarce, drought-prone sandy land can become a 'cornucopia' of prosperity." Zhang Xiaojun said happily.
Zhang Xiaojun's decision to grow peanuts was not a whim but the result of careful consideration. In recent years, corn prices have declined year by year, profits have dropped noticeably, and it has become increasingly difficult for farmers to increase their incomes. Last year, Zhang Xiaojun planted 430 mu of corn, investing 100,000 yuan in succession. In autumn, he sold 140,000 jin of corn for more than 80,000 yuan in income. Not counting labor and electricity costs, he still lost more than 20,000 yuan. Without structural adjustment, there was no way to make a living, Zhang Xiaojun realized. Then came a golden opportunity: a friend in Changchun asked Zhang Xiaojun to help contract several hundred mu of sandy land to grow peanuts, telling him it was "guaranteed to make money." The friend also said that if villagers were willing to grow them, they could join in too; he would provide seeds, fertilizer, and machinery, and guarantee sales. The promise of "guaranteed to make money" moved Zhang Xiaojun. Peanuts are suited to growing on sandy land, and every part of the plant is useful. Peanut shells, after being crushed and mixed with rice bran and wheat bran to make pellet feed, can feed pigs, chickens, fish, and more. Besides being used as food, peanuts can also be pressed for oil. Peanut vines are the best feed for cattle and sheep and can shorten the fattening period. Zhang Xiaojun, born and raised there, was very familiar with this land of his hometown. Two-thirds of the village's land is sandy. If the profits were good, peanuts could replace corn as the village's pillar industry. These benefits strengthened Zhang Xiaojun's determination to grow them. Eventually, he reached a cooperation agreement with his friend in Changchun. He contracted his family's 500 mu of land to his friend, and he himself contracted another 500 mu of abandoned sandy land from villagers. Zhang Xiaojun was responsible for field management of the 1000 mu and for drilling wells, bringing in electricity, and installing sprinkler irrigation, while his friend was responsible for providing planting technology, seeds, fertilizer, and machinery. After the autumn harvest, the two would split the profits equally.
From the beginning of spring, Zhang Xiaojun and his friend threw themselves into the fields. Because they adopted intensive planting and replaced manual labor with modern farming methods, from sowing to routine field management, just Zhang Xiaojun and his friend "easily" managed the vast 1000 mu of land. Zhang Xiaojun told reporters that throughout the farming process, fully mechanized operations were used, with sowing, fertilizing, covering with soil, applying herbicide, mulching with film, punching holes, and covering the film with soil all completed in one pass. In dry periods, they turned on the sprinkler irrigation to water promptly, saving time and effort.
As time went on, the once barren sandy land gradually turned into eye-catching green fields. Whenever villagers had time, they would go to Zhang Xiaojun's peanut fields to watch and learn about peanut planting techniques, field management, market conditions, and more.
In early November, Zhang Xiaojun's peanuts began to be harvested. Because mechanical harvesting was used, the 1000 mu of land was harvested in less than 7 days. The 500 mu of sandy land Zhang Xiaojun contracted was low-yield farmland that had almost completely failed year after year. He did a detailed calculation with us: based on his harvest from growing corn on sandy land two years earlier, each mu produced 400 jin of corn. At this year's market price of 0.6 yuan, each mu brought in 240 yuan in income. After deducting costs of 300 yuan, growing corn lost 60 yuan per mu. This year, growing peanuts on sandy land under the same conditions, peanuts yielded 300 jin per mu. At the current market price of 3.10 yuan, after deducting costs of 400 yuan per mu, the net income was 500 yuan per mu. That was 500 yuan more per mu than growing corn. The harvested peanut vines had long since been snapped up by nearby large livestock farmers, and selling the peanut vines alone brought in more than 40,000 yuan.
Village Party branch secretary Xie Fengmin was very optimistic about peanut planting. He said: "Adjusting the structure of the planting industry is actually not difficult. The difficulty lies in technology and mindset. Peanuts are a sandy-land crop. Our village has more than 7000 mu of cultivated land in total, of which more than 5000 mu is sandy land. We need to cultivate peanut planting into the village's pillar industry and make all the villagers' wallets bulge."
Having tasted the benefits, Zhang Xiaojun was full of hope for the coming year. He said that next year he would establish a peanut planting cooperative, expand the planting scale, give priority to including the village's poor households as members, and lead the villagers to prosperity together.